Research shows …show more content…
He explained that although marriage in America was traditionally defined as a relationship between one man and one women, non-Western based practices have included societies that have benefited well from alternative relationship arrangements. For example, some religious cultural groups such as the Jewish Israelites and subgroups of Islam have practiced polygamy (Kurt, 2013). In Jewish culture, polygamy, or plural marriage, was an alternative for men whose wives were barren (Goldfeder, 2014). Additionally, polygamy was employed for political reasons; when kings desired peace between their own communities and surrounding communities, they themselves married or had their kin intermarry with other communities to build alliances, or prevent war (Goldfeder, 2014). Khasawneh et. al (2011) found general positive benefits for the polygamist families including being a solution for woman who remained single beyond marrying age, financial stability, and education for their children from previous marriages. However, some research shows that in comparison with monogamous marriages, polygamous wives experience a significant higher rating of psychological distress, increase level of over all fear, and psychological dilemma (Khasawneh et. al, 2011). Women of polygamous marriages had much more problems in family business, marital contacts, and life happiness as well (Al-Krenawi …show more content…
The people of the Na culture, for example, located in southwest China, practice serial short-term monogamy (Monsoma, 2014). This alternative relationship arrangement endures long enough to procreate, and then males, or brothers, move on to other partners to begin the procreating process again, while the women, or sisters, raise the children (Monsoma, 2014). There is limited research regarding other cultures that currently practice this alternative relationships